Does anybody know what Stan Kroenke is up to? The American billionaire recently bought a 9.9 percent stake in English Premier League giant Arsenal less than two months after his company Kroenke Sports Enterprises swore it had no intention of acquiring a stake in the club. Does this preclude a possible takeover attempt?
The Arsenal board has no idea. Chairman Peter Hill-Wood admitted he and the team’s other directors are “in the dark” about the American businessman’s intentions. Managing Director Keith Edelman recently flew to Denver to speak with the billionaire tycoon, who also owns the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and the Colorado Rapids of MLS, among another sports teams.
Sources told the Telegraph that the timing of the meeting was just a coincidence — that the Arsenal executive had agreed to meet with Kroenke months ago as part of the club’s cross-marketing agreement with Kroenke’s Rapids. Which is all they discussed, apparently. The Telegraph says Edelman returned to London with no more knowledge about the billionaire’s intentions than he had before leaving. “It was no secret that ITV were looking to sell their stake, but you would have thought that they [KSE] would have contacted us before they bought it,” Hill-Wood said. “But they didn’t and that’s their business.”